Casket seal



Jun 27, 196 w. 1.. SLAUGHTER CASKET SEAL Filed Sept. 5, 1964 I'NVENTOR.WILLIAM L. SLAUGHTER United States Patent 3,327,429 CASKET SEAL WilliamL. Slaughter, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to The Crane & Breed CasketCompany, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Sept. 3, 1964,Ser. No. 394,297 2 Claims. (Cl. 49-485) The present invention relates toa casket seal, such as is applicable particularly to burial caskets.

In the use of burial caskets, the sealing of the casket must usually beperformed within a limited space of time, and without much attentiondevoted to the mechanics of effecting a satisfactory seal incident toclosing the lid upon the casket body. It is therefore the responsibilityof the casket manufacturer to provide sealing means of a highly reliabletype, which can be expected to eflect a seal with precision upon mereclosing of the lid in casual manner.

An object of the present invention is to provide in a burial casketconstruction, a highly reliable sealing means which can be depended uponto invariably tightly seal the casket upon casual closing of the lidupon the casket rim.

Another object of the invention is to provide sealing means of thecharacter stated, which furnishes effective multiple barriers tomovement of air and water past the seal.

Another object is to provide an improved sealing means having theadvantages above noted, which is highly durable, and simple andinexpensive to manufacture and apply to a burial casket.

The foregoing and other objects are attained by the means describedherein, and illustrated upon the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmental perspective view of the improved sealing meansfor a burial casket.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged transverse cross-section taken through a burialcasket rim and lid, the lid being out of contact with the sealing means.

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2, with the lid closed upon the sealingmeans.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary top plan view of the sealing means of theinvention, showing a corner construction thereof.

In the drawing, the numeral denotes the upper rim portion of a burialcasket 12, and 14 indicates a lid for the casket. The lid usually ishinged upon the casket body, and may be swung from an open to a closedposition relative to the casket rim. The lid has a peripheral planarsealing area 16 which, in the closed position of the lid, overlies anupper peripheral jamb face 18 of the casket rim. Face 18 is adapted tosupport a gasket or sealing strip 20, which may be cemented, screwed, orotherwise secured thereon. Lid area 16 seals against gasket 20 whenclosed upon the casket body, to provide a multiple seal.

The gasket or sealing strip may be of flexible rubberlike plasticmaterial, such as neoprene, molded substantially in rectangular form(FIG. 1), and having a planar back or lower face 22 to overlie thecasket rim area 16. The gasket width is defined by outer and inner edges24 and 26, respectively, which may be parallel to one another, and whichmeet at the gasket ends to form corners 28 fitting the corners of rim10.

The upper or exposed face 30 of gasket 20 carries a pair ofpressure-deformable lips 32, 34, based upon face 30, and projected awayfrom said face at an angle inclined from the vertical, so that the lipsgradually converge at a location remote from face 30, to provide anarrow gap 36. The free edges 38 of the lips define the width of gap 36,and are parallel to one another all ice around the extent of the gasket.The lips are soft and resilient, and may taper gradually thin in thedirection of the free edges 38.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that lowering of lid 14 to theFIG. 3 position, results in turning the lips inwardly toward one anotherto partially flatten the lips and reduce the gap 36. To obtain the mosteffective double seal between lips 32, 34, and the sealing area 16 ofthe lid, the lips should be so proportioned that the free edges 38thereof approach one another without actually meeting, when the liddescends to its maximal closing position. Thus, a pair of spacedparallel seals are produced, with an air space or channel between them,along the full perimeter of lid sealing area 16. It will be noted byreferring to FIG. 3, that lips 32 and 34 in the fully closed position oflid 14, bend inwardly at a location above upper face 30 of the gasket,and do not flatten against said face 30 intermediate the lips; nor dothe free edges of the lips meet at gap 36. The confining air spacebeneath gap 36 is an important feature of the invention, along with theindependent parallel seals formed by the lips against the lid face 16.

If desired, the upper face of gasket 2!} may be provided with one ormore upstanding ribs 40 arranged in parallelism with lips 32, 34; suchribs being preferably at a lower elevation than the lips with relationto gasket face 30, so that said ribs 40 may provide additional sealsagainst lid face 16 while at the same time limiting the extent to whichsaid lid face 16 compresses and deforms the lips 32 and 34 when the lidis fully closed. Ribs 40, being upwardly extended only a limiteddistance, are more resistive to compression than lips 32 and 34 and willtherefore effectively limit the lowering movement of the casket lidwhile at the same time producing a seal therewith. Ribs 40, like thelips 32 and 34, are inherently flexible and resilient.

The numeral 42 denotes a shrine for the casket, suitably attached to thebody rim interiorly thereof, for example as disclosed in my copendingapplication Ser. No. 156,648, filed Dec. 4, 1961. A retainer for theshrine may comprise a down-turned flange 44 on the rim 10, and aU-shaped channel member 46 cooperating with the flange to form a socketin which is retained the tongue 48 of the shrine. The channel member 46may include a base 50 welded or otherwise secured to the rim. The shrineand its mounting form no part of the present invention, and need nottherefore be disclosed in greater detail.

From the foregoing disclosure and explanation, it should be evident thatlowering of the casket lid must necessarily result in turning the gasketlips 32 and 34 inwardly to- Ward one another to form the intended seals.The inwardly arched predisposition of the lips precludes the possibilitythat one lip, or a portion of a lip, might be turned in a contrarydirection by the lid in closing. Moreover, the shrine or any otherobject which might overlie the sealing lips during an extended period totime, will have no tendency to deform the lips in any direction otherthan that which is favorable to proper subsequent sealing against thecasket lid. Thus, the entire arrangement is such that mere casualclosing of the lid will ensure effective sealing as intended.

It is to be understood that various modifications and changes may bemade in the structural details of the device, within the scope of theappended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A gasket for effecting a seal between the peripheral upper rim of aburial casket, and a peripheral sealing area of a casket lid, saidgasket comprising: a strip of flexible resilient rubber-like plasticmaterial having spaced outer and inner edges, and an intervening planarbase area to rest upon the casket rim; an upper face on the base areaexposed to the sealing area of the lid rib; a pair of flexible andresilient parallel lips based upon said exposed face and projectedupwardly therefrom, said lips having resilient free edges spaced apartand curved toward one another to form a gap therebetween and anunderlying air chamber defined by the lips and the upper face of thegasket base; a plurality of continuous parallel resilient ribsupstanding upon the upper face of the gasket base coextensively with thelips aforesaid, to contact and resiliently self-adjust uniformly uponthe full perimeter of the sealing area of the lid in closing, said ribsbeing extended above the upper face of the gasket base a distance suchas to limit deflection of the resilient lip edges incident to fullclosing of the lid thereon, to the extent of reducing the gap betweenthe lips short of actual closing of said gap.

2. The gasket as specified by claim 1, wherein the strip 4 constitutingthe gasket is formed as a unitary open endless frame dimensioned tooverlie and substantially cover the peripheral upper rim of the burialcasket.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,888,358 11/1932 Palenske 494952,661,229 12/1953 Slaughter 27l7 2,671,935 3/ 1954 Flues 49495 3,003,80110/1961 Wilkirson 27l7 3,065,517 11/1962 Dower 27l7 RICHARD A. GAUDET,Primary Examiner.

15 ROBERT E. MORGAN, Examiner.

W. E. KAMM, Assistant Examiner.

1. A GASKET FOR EFFECTING A SEAL BETWEEN THE PERIPHERAL UPPER RIM OF ABURIAL CASKET, AND A PERIPHERAL SEALING ARREA OF A CASKET LID, SAIDGASKET COMPRISING: A STRIP OF FLEXIBLE RESILIENT RUBBER-LIKE PLASTICMATERIAL HAVING SPACED OUTER AND INNER EDGES, AND AN INTERVENING PLANARBASE AREA TO REST UPON THE CASKET RIM; AN UPPER FACE ON THE BASE AREAEXPOSED TO THE SEALING AREA OF THE LID RIB; A PAIR OF FLEXIBLE ANDRESILIENT PARALLEL LIPS BASED UPON SAID EXPOSED FACE AND PROJECTEDUPWARDLY THEREFROM, SAID LIPS HAVING RESILIENT FREE EDGES SPACED APARTAND CURVED TOWARD ONE ANOTHER TO FORM A GAP THEREBETWEEN AND ANUNDERLYING AIR CHAMBER DEFINED BY THE LIPS AND THE UPPER FACE OF THEGASKET BASE; A PLURALITY OF CONTINUOUS PARALLEL RESILIENT